Review #45: ASW Resurgens Rye

As we mentioned in our previous post on ASW’s Fiddler Unison Bourbon (batch 4), we visited the gorgeous ASW tasting room on our recent trip to Atlanta, Georgia. To recap, the distillery is new (their first release was a white dog in 2011 but they have only started distilling in Atlanta in 2016). However, they have already released an impressive portfolio of whiskies, with 6 available in the tasting room. The taste profiles range from wheated sweet bourbons to super-peaty. All their in-house whiskey is super young, although some of their whiskies use “foraged” whisky sourced from across the country.

The Resurgens standard expression is aged in American oak casks, although a port-cask finished Resurgens rye is released as an annual special release. The label was designed by local Georgian artist David Hale (descendant of Basil Hayden).

Quick overview of our scoring system – note that our “average” score is 5.

Additional Information

• ABV: 43%
• No Age Statement (but likely very young; their “Duality” whiskey was only a year old when it won Double Gold at the SF Spirits Competition)
• Distilled in Scottish-style copper pot stills
• 100% malted rye
• Aged in new, charred American white oak casks

About

• The company started in 2011 but began their distillery in 2016 in Georgia. Their first release was a “silver” whisky (white dog) in Charleston called “American Spirit Whiskey”. Their first matured whiskey release was the Fiddler in 2016.
• Founders Jim Chasteen and Charlie Thompson met at University of Georgia
• Second licensed distillery in Atlanta since Prohibition and the first single malt whiskey in Atlanta